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Kent State
Kent State
Image may be subject to copyright restricitons. Non-commercial use only.

Kent State

Artist (American, born 1948)
DateMay 4, 1970
Mediumgelatin silver print
Dimensionsimage: 17.3 x 20.5 cm (6 13/16 x 8 1/16 in.)
frame: 38.6 x 43.3 cm (15 3/16 x 17 1/16 in.)
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineGift of Howard G. Davis, III A.K.A. David Davis
Object number2011.140
Label TextHamilton was a leader of the 1950s Independent Group, a coalition of British artists and intellectuals who focused on popular culture in the service of their art. Today, the Independent Group is credited as a foundational force behind American and European Pop Art. In May 1970, Hamilton set up his camera and watched TV each night for a week looking for the subject of his next work. Expecting a run of soccer matches and game shows, Hamilton instead documented coverage of the tragic shooting at Kent State University, when Ohio National Guardsmen shot and killed four students who were in the vicinity of a banned student protest. The accompanying photographs represent some of the press coverage that appeared in newspapers nationwide. Among them is the Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph by then-student photographer John Filo, showing fourteen year-old Mary Ann Vecchio kneeling over the dead body of her friend Jeffrey Miller.
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